Mountain biker joins province’s team just 10 days before the Games

Canada Games mountain Biker Jordon Hodder on a course at Topsail Beach in 2011.

Sherbrooke, Que. — Seamus Boyd-Porter missed out on a shot, pardon the pun, at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax when his provincial biathlon team couldn’t get the necessary training because of a lack of equipment.

See, when you don’t have any guns to shoot, it’s hard competing in biathlon.

Two years later, Boyd-Porter looked to have missed out on another Canada Games when he came up short of a roster spot on the mountain biking team destined for Sherbrooke, Que.

Until a twist of fate occurred. When a family emergency forced Devon Fitzpatrick of Mount Moriah to step away from the team, the coaching staff turned to the 19-year-old Boyd-Porter to join fellow 19-year-olds Jordan Hodder and Adam Parsons of Mount Pearl.

One man’s misfortune is another man’s gain.

“Of course, it was pretty awesome to get that call,” said Boyd-Porter, who hails from St. John’s.

“I figured I would be home now writing (university) exams. Thankfully I got them deferred.”

The Newfoundland coaching staff of Keith Manual and Leon Organ actually stumbled upon Boyd-Porter during a camp earlier this summer.

The Canada Games team had already been selected, but Manual and Organ opted to stage a camp for 14- to 16-year-olds, sort of a look-see for potential riders in the 2017 Summer Games, expected to be staged in Winnipeg.

“He was training with the cross-country ski team, and came out with some other riders, who were also skiers, that we were looking at,” Organ said.

“He was an unknown, but we liked what we saw.”

So when Fitzpatrick was forced to pass up the Games, the call was put out to Boyd-Porter just 10 days ago.